Climate Change?

I don't presume to speak for you, but I will for myself.

I have assented, intellectually, to the reality of climate change; yet aside from tweaking my life 'style' (recycling, buying less stuff and using the train a bit more), I have not changed my life.

Which means that I am a follower of Christ who is paradoxically, perversely and actively contributing to climate change.

Three things have challenged me this week, in particular.

First: Climate Camp. A group of brave souls got off their sofas and 'swooped' on Blackheath, to commune, sing, debate, and plot direct action in the capital - such as flash mobs at the City airport.

(I know we get squeamish about direct action, but imagine you were sitting on a bus that was heading towards a cliff. Would you sit there meekly, or jump up and grab the wheel?)

Second, I had the stomach-churning privilege to hear Alastair McIntosh, author of Soil and Soul, speak at Greenbelt. His message was tough: if the science is right, we must prepare spiritually for our grandchildren to face disaster, while doing everything we possibly can to live with the utmost ecological integrity.

Recycling is only the tip of the melting iceberg: second (or bigger) cars were once seen as status symbols; now they speak of ecological road-kill. Is your flight 'necessary'? McIntosh, not a high-earner, was recently offered £5K (and a week in a 5-star hotel) to fly to Trinidad to give one lecture. He turned it down because he could not justify the cost to the planet. My own integrity would have taken flight.

Third, the Guardian launched its 10:10 campaign. Its aim is to help people like me to reduce my carbon footprint by 10 percent in 2010. (In fact, we all need to reduce our carbon emissions by 90 per cent, by 2050, which seems impossible; but we do have to start somewhere, now.)

'You are being asked not only to change your life, but also to make your life very different to the people around you,' says the low-carbon expert Chris Goodall. 'It's almost an aggressive act. All of a sudden you move outside the mainstream milieu.'

All of which sounds like a task for those who truly wish to be 'in' the world, but not 'of' it. One last chance to grab the wheel, perhaps - while we still have a 'world' to speak of.

Brian Draper

Brian Draper is author of Spiritual Intelligence: A New Way of Being - www.spiritualintelligence.co.uk

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Links

Download Alastair McIntosh's talk 'The Climate of Our Times' from Greenbelt for £3 here

Alastair's book Soil and Soul has been described by Bishop James Jones as 'life-changing', by George Monbiot as 'world-changing', and by Thom Yorke of Radiohead as 'truly mental'; buy your copy here

Get all the dirt on Climate Camp from their website

Read all about the Guardian's 10:10 campaign - and then join it - here

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